Jelena Jakupović
Jelena Danijela Jakupović (Serbian Cyrillic: Јелена Данијела Јакуповић) (born 29 July 1979 in Zenica, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Bosnian-New Cambrian reporter, television personality and filmmaker, and one of the most high-profile members of New Cambria's immigrant Bosnian community. Early life Jakupović was born in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was then a part of Yugoslavia. At the age of four, her family moved south to Mostar, where she spent most of her childhood. Jakupović lost her father, grandfather, three uncles and several cousins in the Bosnian War, which began when she was 12 years old. In 1994, she fled to Germany with her mother, grandmother and younger brother. The family lived in Munich for two years, which allowed Jelena to return to school and continue her education. She moved to Arvant with her family in 1997, and settled soon after in nearby Coventry. Career In 2001, while a student at the University of New Cambria, she completed an internship with TV4, and worked mainly on the production side of the channel's broadcasts. In 2003, she was invited to join their on-air staff, having been spotted by TV4's director of programming. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications in 2004, and began appearing on TV4's mid-morning program from 9am to Noon every weekday. Jakupović accepted an offer to join the on-air staff at NCT, New Camrbia's national broadcasting service in 2006, but was contractually prohibited from working for a competing broadcaster for at least a year after leaving TV4. She moved back to Bosnia shortly after, and lived in Sarajevo while waiting for her year-long non-competition restriction to expire. It was during this year that she finally found out the fate of her father and grandfather, and succeeded in locating many of her extended family members. With the help of a friend, she also completed a 55-minute documentary called What You Leave Behind, chronicling her life and that of her hometown before and after she fled. Jakupović returned to New Cambria in 2007 and began working on NCT's morning program, occasionally working for the evening news on weekends. At first NCT executives tried to convince her to adopt a less foreign-sounding name for her on-air work, which she flatly refused. In an interview with Spin magazine, she said that one of the suggested names she could use was "Jolene Johnson." She appeared on the cover of the May 2008 issue of Cam' magazine, and gave a tour of her home on an October 2008 episode of Person to Person. In December 2008, she co-hosted two of the 2008 New Cambria National Song Contest Semi-Finals with Kenneth Bowden. She returned to co-host the Grand Final of the 2009 New Cambria National Song Contest with Noah Kavanagh, and will do the same for the semi-finals of the 2010 New Cambria National Song Contest. Personal Life Jakupović was raised in a multi-ethnic household; her mother is a Bosnian Serb and her father was a Bosnian Muslim. Her younger brother Darko is a correspondent for the Bosnian language version of Voice of America. Although she is fluent in English and German, she speaks Bosnian at home. In 2008, Jakupović purchased a 96-year-old home in the Industry Hill neighborhood of Arvant. She also owns a home and several acres of land near Mostar, in her native Bosnia and Herzegovina, which she inherited from her grandmother. Jakupović rarely comments on her romantic life, but was in a relationship with Charles Hopewell, a bookstore owner from Arvant, from early 2007 to at least May 2008. Category:New Cambria Category:Individuals